Hans Nielsen Hauge's Memorial Museum

At Hans Nielsen Hauge's Minde there is both a museum and a visitor centre. Hans Nielsen Hauge Minde is a protected cultural monument that consists of two connected buildings. One building is from 1730/1740 where Hans Nielsen Hauge was born, and where he grew up with his nine siblings and parents. Right next to this, is a white house dated from approx. 1830 and which was originally an assembly hall. Today there is a small, modern visitor center here, with a shop, exhibition and writing room. Guided tours are held in the center and in the place of birth.

Who was Hans Nielsen Hauge?

Hans Nielsen Hauge was a Norwegian lay preacher and industrial entrepreneur. He founded the Christian movement known as the Haugians, also called Hauge's friends. Hans Nielsen Hauge has had a great impact on social development in Norway.

Hauge was a farm boy from Rolvsøy in Fredrikstad. When he was born, the farm the family owned was located in the municipality of Tune in Østfold. He grew up in a Christian home, as child number five in a group of ten siblings. When he was 25 years old, he had his great spiritual experience on the land right outside his childhood home. This experience was in many ways the starting point for his later life and work. The spiritual experience led Hauge to start asking critical social questions, and gathered several eager listeners when he organized revival meetings around Fredrikstad and the surrounding area. With more and more supporters, larger groups of friends formed, which eventually became what we know as the Haugianer movement. This had great significance for the development of Christianity in Norway in the 19th century, and challenged the view at the time that only priests could preach God's word. This meant that he was repeatedly imprisoned, which ultimately had a negative impact on his health. Despite this, during his life he wrote a total of 33 books and writings, in addition to many hundreds of letters.

Hauge not only gathered large crowds with his socially critical commitment. He was also an entrepreneur who started countless companies, and helped to create thousands of jobs around Norway on his many travels. He wandered tirelessly from town to town, often with the knitting in his hands, and took work around on nearby farms or started new businesses. He was concerned that the people should have better reading and writing skills, about equality between women and men, poor and rich, learned and unlearned.

After extensive travel throughout Norway and also in Denmark, Hauge spent his last years in Oslo. Here he married and settled down, after a longer stay in prison and after being persecuted by the authorities, who banned his books and fined him. A protracted court case over several years finally freed Hauge, and he eventually gained a more conciliatory relationship with priests and civil servants, and also compensation from the state for lost income and wealth.

Hauge died in 1824, aged 53, and was buried at Gamle Aker cemetery in Oslo.